The origins of Socialism lie in three main branches. The first of which, “Platonic Communism” is more a theory than anything else. It arises mainly from Plato’s theory of ‘Guardians and Auxiliaries’ whereby Plato tells us that Guardians will have no private possessions beyond the bare essentials, and none should have a dwelling house to which anyone is refused entry, and thirdly that their food should be a reward for work done or others. The quantity of food will be enough as to provide no surplus or deficit over the year. They will own no material gold r silver for it will pollute the gold given to them from the Gods. He finally says that if they do come into contact with Gold or Property, they will become farmers and men of business rather than Guardians, and effectively become ‘tyrants instead of guardians’.
Christianity is another source of Socialism. Tony Benn believed that the 1st Socialist dated back to 4 years BC, he thought that Jesus Christ was indeed a socialist. He saw evidence for this in parables, such as the Rich Young Man who is told to sell everything he has and follow in a cause, sermons, such as the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus proclaims that “Blessed are the poor.” The feeding of the 5,000 also has links o Socialism, where they pool all the food that the people have, nd when it is divided there is enough for all of the 5,000. Christian Socialism therefore was a brand of socialism that seeked to base the socialist system upon loyalty to the Christian church as opposed to antireligious, anti-Christian, atheistic brands of socialism, and yet still believed in all of the fundamental socialist ideas.
Utopianism was another branch of early Socialist ideas, and it went back to Plato’s criticism of the existing society. The first Utopian Socialist to produce a class study was St Simon. In his publication letters from inhabitant of Geneva he explains that society is broken up into Parasites and Producers, of which he admitted to being a parasite, and that this social system was becoming more and more unequal.
In The theory of the for-movements Fourier explains how the world had been perfectly created by God, and that man had destructed this. He came up with a solution which was to sub divide society into 16-1800 people, these would be known as phallasteres. This number was chosen for it as assumed to be not too big to alienate its members and big enough to cater for society. It was based on equality, as any surpluses produced would be swapped with other phallasteres, so as to not build up any profits.
Robert Owen was a Scotland based English man who built and owned factories in Scotland. However what was different about him was that he created free housing, schooling and shops where goods were sold at a discount price. He did this because he thought that it was of his own Economic interest to look after his workers. And in this case he was correct, for everyone wanted to work for him, and put in 100% effort, for they all wanted the factory to do well and therefore for it to stay open.
The Industrialisation period was a time of mass social and demographic change. Not only was there a rush from rural areas to Urban ones, but also a polarisation between the classes, as poverty, deprivation and destitution became apparent in the working classes. All of this promoted socialist/radical alternatives. Two examples of these are the Diggers and the Levellers.
Out of this Industrial revolution grew two more movements; they were the Trade Unions and the Charterists. Trade Unions were friendly societies, where it was thought that Socialism would grow They predate Marxism, and typical of Socialism, there was erratic development in the early 9th Century. The idea was that members would pay a small amount into the ‘pot’ each year, and this money was then used to help the members if any of them were ever in danger. It was not until the 190s that they began to fight for wage increases, and therefore was completely different to what we see as Trade Unions today. Marx later used these organisations to try to show how Capitalism would in turn collapse.
The levellers began in 1646 and were said to be the Early English Socialists. This in effect was not true, for even though their name suggests it, they did not seek to level society, as their name suggests. “We never had it in our minds to level men’s estates or make all things common”. Their thoughts were mainly concentrated around the idea that England should have a written constitution, in order to prevent the monarch abusing their prerogatives. , they were called the agreement of the people. It included ideas such as their being annual parliaments, whereby Mps could not stand for 2 years in a row, the abolishment of the House of Lords. However, what they were un sure about was who should get the ability to vote. The majority believed that royalists, servants, and charitable organisations should not be allowed to vote, while some believed that all people should have the ability to vote.
The Diggers pronounced themselves as the true ‘levellers’. Lead predominantly by Gerald Winstanley. He argued that the existing system of land ownership meant that England was not properly cultivated. “The selfishness of a few leads to deprivation of millions.”
Marxism is the economic, social and political theory and practice originating in the works of Karl Marx and Friedriech Engels. Karl Marx himself was the son of a lawyer and studied law and philosophy at University. He rejected the ideals of Hegel but was positively influenced by the work of Moses Hess. In 1848 he wrote, with Engels, the Communist Manifesto and other works that broke with the tradition of appealing to natural rights to justify social reform, instead one of his main ideas was the power of history that would inevitably provoke social reform.
With the help of Engels, Marx founded the International Workingmen’s Association.
There is no doubt that Marx and Engels changed the Socialist views and helped to modernise and adapt Socialism to be more applicable o today’s world. However as can be seen in this essay, Socialism existed as an entire form before Marx. Socialism was very scrambled at the time of the Diggers etc and it was Marx who brought the ideas together o forma comprehensive ideology, that later became Marxism…
The Charterists campaigned for a Bill of Rights to be issued. They were generally political reformers. They also wanted the House of Lords to be abolished for they saw it as un-demographic and un democratic. There main aim however was that of equality, and they were shortly followed by Marx and Engels.
